March gig previews

Margate born, now New York based, guitarist Phil Robson seems to specialise in ensembles with unusual instrumentation. Here it’s a guitar, Hammond organ and drums trio, and Ross Stanley and Gene Calderazzo, one of the best drummers operating in jazz right now, respectively complete the group. The trio are adept at melodies, grooves and improvisation in styles that range from laid back to steaming.

Therapy?/The Membranes @ The Wardrobe, Leeds – Thur 3

Northern Irish punk/metal trio Therapy? bestrode the UK alt metal scene for a couple of years in the early 90’s, and despite fluctuating popularity and commercial success the band have gigged and released albums steadily since then, with singer/guitarist Andy Cairns and bassist Michael McKeegan forming the core of the band throughout. The band did, and still do, play to packed festival stages, so this is a tiny venue for them. Mayhem may be generated. And you get The Membranes too.

Great collection of noisy contrarians who delight in rubbishing your expectations of what music can be. So while Herb Diamante does eerie and sinister electro torch songs in the guise of shaman of the demi-monde, The Piss Superstition is Julian Bradley of Vibracathdral Orchestra doing his drone/electronic/noise thing, maybe or maybe not in collaboration with someone else, and Early Hominids are described as “Mirfield’s finest, indeed only psychodelic [sic] electronics act”, so how can this not be a winner?

Be warned, after rendering a room full of boozed up metal fans speechless and open mouthed in wonder a couple of weeks ago, Super Luxury will have their dander up so there’s no telling what may actually happen at this gig. Well, what is billed as happening is a full on Hotdog Eating Competition taking place while the band are playing their set, but that could just be a ruse…….just hope singer Adam Nodwell doesn’t pull his chocolate log out again. The other bands do careering garage blues, rapid fire upbeat party grindcore and ecstatic psyche riffage respectively and are all great. Fuck it, just go for the hotdogs…

Hey Colossus/Not Waving/DRMCNT @ Kirkgate Centre, Shipley – Sat 5

Shipley based promoters Golden Cabinet have been scoring admiring notices in high profile (The Guardian) and left field (Wire) publications of late, but if anyone thought that would lead to a toning down of the, er, challenging nature of the music they put on to appease the hipsters and middle class lefties now queuing at the doors, this gig ably waves two fingers in their general direction. Hey Colossus do a particularly direct and uncompromising take on brutal noise rock whose riffs just grind everything to dust. Not Waving is the solo project of Walls member Alessio Natalizia, and produces a shape shifting electronica that moves easily between washes of ambience and more abrasive styles. DRMCNT is the solo job of Rhys of Hey Colossus featuring heavily rhythm based pulsing tunes. And that name? Just add a couple of U’s…..

It’s encouraging at least that following the departure of promoter Was Is Das? from the area, Todmorden based outfit Tor Bookings seem to be keeping the flag flying for exploratory music in Hebden Bridge. And what a gig. Guitar/voice and drums duo Guttersnipe are a fearsome powerhouse of elemental energy. Despite containing elements of approaches to the making of noise music or rock music, using the hybridised genre tag ‘noise-rock’ simply doesn’t do what they achieve with their basic set up and equipment justice. They simply have to be heard, and seen, to be believed.

Barry Adamson @ The Trades Club, Hebden Bridge – Thur 10

Starting as the original bass player with post punk progenitors Magazine, Barry Adamson went on to be part of the first (and best?) incarnation of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Since leaving that band in the early 90’s, Adamson has released a string of solo albums that have been imaginary, but occasionally real, soundtracks for films, the former usually stitched together with appropriate ‘found’ clips of dialogue or sound effects that suggest the main visual stimulus in film for Adamson is film noir. Adamson is a hugely underappreciated musician and composer, his lack of recognition outside the cognoscenti made even more baffling by the fact that his music has potentially huge commercial appeal. Adamson has a new album, Know Where To Run, out now and it sure knows how to move its hips.

Snotty punk pop full of its own brazen determination to just have a bloody good time. New whelps Milk Crimes look half-starved but play like its food for their souls; The Spills, one of the best bands to come out of Wakefield in the past decade, chew it around thoughtfully a bit before throttling their guitars in desperation anyway; and Grand Old Vets Johnny Foreigner simply have no idea how to grow old gracefully, still churning out frenzied punk pop anthems like they were still 15, and fuck you, you chin stroking indie hipster…..

Colin Stetson @ Howard Assembly Rooms, Leeds – Fri 11

Solo reeds player Colin Stetson’s natural home is avant garde jazz or contemporary classical circles, so it’s interesting to note how he’s managed to cross over into more mainstream awareness. Of course it’s principally because his early releases came out on Constellation Records, home of Godspeed You, Black Emperor, and from his stints with the likes of Arcade Fire and TV On the Radio which introduced him to a much wider audience. His solo music, though, can be a challenging listen, utilising all aspects of his formidable technique as well as non-standard instrument manipulation.

This Halifax based promoter celebrates 11 years of operations with its second all-dayer with a fantastically diverse line up, including headliners Yucatan, The Drink, Serious Sam Barrett, Darkher and others, with Jez Kerr, bassist from Manchester post punk legends A Certain Ratio, and Leeds’ righteous trip hop explorers Fold being highlights along the way. Outfits like The Doghouse survive on a hand to mouth existence and are the backbone of the DIY music ethos and they deserve your support. And if you think you got problems doing it DIY in Leeds, try doing it for over a decade in a town like Halifax. More details and full line up here www.facebook.com/events/943626075733570/

Now essentially a vehicle for founding member Kjetil Nernes, Arabrot may have emerged in 2001 from the Norwegian metal scene but have transformed over the last 15 years into a band much less easy to define. Nernes recruits collaborators and band members to complete specific projects, which can be highly stylised, almost theatrical experiences. However, the band’s just released new album, The Gospel, is mostly more recognisable art/noise rock songs which betray the clear stamp of Swans, one of Nernes acknowledges influences. Fitting then that the drummer on the album is ex Swans Ted Parsons, and with the likes of Stephen O’Malley, Karin Park, Erlend Hjelvik (singer with Norwegian metal band Kvelertak) and Andrew Liles contributing it’s a typically formidable ensemble, although it’s not clear which of these, if any, will be at the Brude.

Wanna go heavy? This is your gig. Hundred Year Old Man do basement deep, thick as treacle, eyeball vibrating low end doom of the very best kind. Fallen Colossus do post metal that’s equal parts prog and crushing riffs. The excellently named drums and guitar duo Brianblessed (wonder if he’s aware?) are the infants at the party flicking their grindcore snot around, and Helve provide the ideal opening with their more considered take on the slow, heavy, riff approach.

Vibracathedral Orchestra/Guttersnipe @ Wharf Chambers, Leeds - Fri 25

How long have Vibracathedral Orchestra been dishing out their endlessly layered, intricate meshes of droning improv now? 20? 30 years? Or just merely as long as a La Monte Young composition. How long? Ah, who cares. Their alchemy miraculously works every single bloody time they pick up their instruments and their gigs are always a rich feast of sound and spirit. This is an interesting paring though, because guitar/voice and drums duo Guttersnipe go for the throat in a much more explosive approach to the path to ecstasy through sonic abandonment. Will VCO rise to the challenge of the young upstarts? Let’s go find out…

Tasty line up of guitar noise abuse and riff crash bombs. Prolific Qubecois experimental hardcore/grind/death metallers Fuck the Facts are hugely creative and inventive but last toured the UK three years ago, so chances to see them don’t come round that often. Solid support too, from Svalbard, who do epic hardcore/black metal, filthy low end grind from Dysteria, and completed by two prime examples of Leeds’ own take on hyper fast grindcore.

Sean Voorhees 50th Birthday @ Temple of Boom, Leeds – Sat 26

The guitarist of legendary Durham hardcore punk outfit Voorhees Sean Readman is 50, so he’s having an all day party with the likes of The Fiend, Kickback Generation, Dogs Flesh, Young Conservatives, Silly Things, Geist and many others, which sounds like a fine idea to me. Of more specific interest is the fact that the gig marks the return of the terrifyingly brilliant Normal Man, the musical embodiment of misanthropy no less. More info and full line up here www.facebook.com/events/627142330757009/